Copending application Ser. No. 582,305, filed Sept. 14, 1990, entitled "Multiresolution Digital Imagery Photofinishing System", by S. Kristy, assigned to the assignee of the present application and the disclosure of which is herein incorporated, describes a digital image processing system wherein photographic still images, such as those captured by way of a 35 mm camera, are digitized and recorded on an optical compact disc (CD), for subsequent playback on a CD player. Image data files are created by scanning the images on a roll of developed photographic film to produce digitized pixel data for the images, and storing the pixel data as image data files. A relatively permanent digital storage medium, such as an optical disc readable by a laser pickup, is then produced. A user having such a disc loads the disc into a disc player coupled to a display unit such as a video monitor or television. Then, by entering suitable commands into the disc player or a separate control unit, the user displays selected images on the display unit.
A low cost, reduced complexity frame store/data retrieval architecture, incorporated into a CD player and which provides for rapid call-up of images stored as digitized image data and display of the images on a consumer television color monitor, is described in a co- pending United States patent application, Ser. No. 583,265, filed Sept. 14, 1990, entitled "Mechanism for Controlling Presentation of Displayed Image". A presentation control file in the data base corresponds with each image data file. The presentation control file contains orientation and aspect ratio information, so that the image playback device will know how each image has been stored on the database and will therefore know how to access the stored image so that it is played back in a proper upright condition.
The presentation control file included in the database, which is typically recorded using a write-once optical disc and cannot be altered by a conventional CD player, can be augmented or superseded by image parameter data stored in by a separate storage medium, such as an electrically-programmable read only memory module. Such a module may be either fixed inside the CD player or may alternately be removable from the player, and may be configured to store customized image display parameters including contrast, image magnification, color balance, etc., as described in a co-pending U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 07/582,727, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,246,659, filed Sept. 4, 1990, entitled "Auxiliary Removable Memory for Storing Image Parameter Data" by K. Parulski et al, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and the disclosure of which is herein incorporated.
More particularly, this application discloses an improved storage and retrieval mechanism for a digital image processing system wherein a plurality of photographic images that have been captured on a photographic film strip are digitized for processing and subsequent display. Digitized images are stored on a digital data storage recording medium, such as a compact disc, which is capable of being coupled to an image playback device for reproduction of a digitized image on a display such as a color TV monitor. A photofinisher having suitable equipment scans developed film and produces an optical disc, and then provides the disc to the customer along with the developed film.
Subsequently, when the customer inserts the disc into a playback device, such as a compact disc player, for driving an output display, such as a color TV monitor, the playback device decodes the presentation control file information in the course of reading out the digitized image, and uses the presentation control file to control the playback device in such a way as to display the image in an upright orientation and at the correct aspect ratio for the display. If the aspect ratio is such that the dimensions of the image do not match the dimensions of the display, a border generator fills in non-accessed pixel addresses to complete the image on the display.
In various applications in which multimedia information is to be conveyed, it would be desirable to provide synchronized images and audio messages. For instance, in a museum, a display includes a plurality of still images such as color slides and corresponding audio messages, such as narration, sound effects, etc. As another example, a sales demonstration may include a series of images accompanied by sound tracks or voiceovers which vary in language, content, etc., depending on the market which is to be targeted. Furthermore, it would be desirable to be able to easily rearrange the images and audio segments into a variety of different sequences, which may be appropriate for different audiences, or in response to different user inputs, for example, from different push-buttons in a museum walk-up display.
Audio information such as voice, music, sound effects, etc., can also be stored in digital form and played back on a separate audio system. However, it is difficult to synchronize separate audio and image systems, particularly if the systems together are to provide different associated images, audio messages, etc., and difficult to allow for convenient editing, such as resequencing audio messages and images, or changing the audio message with which an image is associated, in such a system. Also, if separate audio and video display systems are used for a multimedia presentation, the cost and bulk of the two separate systems are undesirably large.